Category Archives: Current Issues in the Church
Current Issues in the Church
There is so much Catholic information and commentary available now that the hard part is choosing what issues are most important enough to follow. Our website limits its coverage to those current events that touch on our doctrinal and missionary purposes. Issues involving our apostolate get top priority, but other issues affecting all of our lives are also highlighted in our news reports and columns.
A knowledge of Church history will give us the tools necessary to deal with many of the alarming current issues that threaten the Faith and the Church, theologically, morally, and socially.
Brother Francis has a tremendous appreciation for the history of the Church. He liked to call Church history “the laboratory of wisdom.” Why? Because the history of the Church is the history of human salvation, and choosing the best means to save one’s soul is the highest prudence. And prudence, says St. Thomas Aquinas, is wisdom in action.
A knowledge of Church history is essential if we are to apply the wisdom of the past, and the tragic errors of the past, to current issues and events in the Church. History is the laboratory of wisdom, but the application today of the lessons learned from history is prudence.
How, for example, are we to understand what St. Pius X meant when he said that “modernism is the synthesis of all heresies,” if we are ignorant of the history of the Church’s battles against heresy? How are we to evaluate the causes of what Pope Benedict referred to a “crisis of Faith,” if we unfamiliar with any of the twenty ecumenical councils that preceded Vatican II?
Christendom is gone as a reflection of the social reign of Christ the King, but Catholicism lives on, and the spiritual warfare is ever-present. We must keep informed, rejoicing in the good, and fighting against what is evil.
Conflicting Reports on ‘Nostra Aetate’
The great deal of talk surrounding the pending Rome-SSPX rapprochement has presented us with two cardinals publicly giving conflicting reports on the magisterial character of Nostra Aetate, the Vatican II document on non-Catholic religions. Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, says that the document, and the post-conciliar papal statements concerning Catholic-Jewish relations, “are binding on a … More →
SSPX: ‘With or Against Rome from This Point On’
From Kreuz.net via the Eponymous Flower: …Bishop Fellay explained that the current “seemingly comfortable” situation is coming to an end for the Society. The current way will not continue: ”It will be a with or against Rome from this point on.” Both will be hard. Read more…
Burning Question
Why do most “Catholic” politicians invoke their religion exactly when they are contradicting it in public?
Dean of Roman Rota Calls for Reform of Easy Annulments
Catholic Culture: Speaking at a conference in Rome, the dean of the Roman Rota suggested the need for a more rigorous interpretation of a provision in canon law that is cited in many annulment cases. Read more here.
OH Bishop Compels Catholic College to Disinvite Pro-Abortion Speaker
Let’s pray that these successors of the Apostles continue to grow in fortitude in denouncing any compromise with the abortion machine, especially with lawmakers who fund it with taxpayer money. Catholic Culture: For the 2nd time in less than a month, a Catholic college has rescinded a commencement invitation because the local bishop objected to a proposed speaker’s views on issues involving the sanctity of … More →
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WI Bishop Supports Traditional New Priests, Warns Complainers to Cease Gossip
Wisconsin State Journal: Madison Catholic Bishop Robert Morlino has moved to quell a backlash against a group of conservative priests in Platteville by warning parishioners they risk formal church censure unless they stop spreading “rumors and gossip.” Read more here.
Papal Commission on China Exhorts Catholics to Resist Patriotic Association Interference
Catholic Culture: A special papal commission on the Church in China has exhorted Chinese Catholics to resist the efforts by the government-backed Patriotic Association to control the Church. Full report here.
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Catholic Anti-Communist’s Vocal Protest Aimed at Castro Regime not the Pope
CNA: Cuban dissident Andres Carrion said he did not intend to offend the Catholic Church when he shouted “freedom” during the papal Mass in the country on March 26. “It was not my intention to tarnish the Mass, and I have said so to various priests I have spoken with and they have understood me,” he said. “I am a Catholic and I didn’t have … More →
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The Confusion Continues with Chinese Consecrations
UCANews: Father Methodius Qu Ailin will be ordained bishop of Hunan this week, according to local Church sources. The 51-year-old priest has been approved by Pope Benedict XVI and recognized by the Chinese government, the sources said. The ceremony is scheduled for April 25 at the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception in Changsha city, the capital of southern Hunan province. Bishop Joseph Li Shan of Beijing, … More →
‘I’m Catholic, But . . .’ Dismal Situation of ‘Cafeteria Catholicism’ in Ireland
Survey shows that 85% of the people identify themselves as Catholic but 60% favor women’s ordinations, and 78% of priests say clergy should be allowed to get married. Catholic World Report: During a meeting at the Vatican in 1946, Msgr. Giovanni Battista Montini—the future Pope Paul VI—told Ireland’s ambassador to the Holy See, “You are the most Catholic country in the world!” The latest figures … More →
Why the Disorientation and Exodus of Nuns in the 60s and 70s? Humanist Psychology?
Patheos‘ Kathy Schiffer provides an informative summary of the destructive role of just two psychologists and their team who, in 1966, were given a three-year grant (I don’t know from what organization) to experiment with religious orders through humanistic Freudian inspired workshops.
Vatican Demands Reform of Leadership of Women Religious in US
Noting that the situation is “grave,” the CDF document is severely critical of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious’ (LCWR) positions on Church teaching, discipline, and morals. And well it should be. These leaders, who have no authority outside their own congregations, hold annual conferences in which they defy the teaching of the Church on consecrated life and discipline, women’s ordinations, abortion, and homosexuality. They … More →
